We British love our holidays whether it’s the annual bucket and spade job or a walking trek over the countryside, the short city break and weekends away. In fact, the very act of travel not only arouses feelings of excitement and anticipation but can be said to be part and parcel of the whole ‘getting away from it all’ experience.

The exhibition Getting Away! is based on the idea of the great British holiday and its importance in both nourishing the spirit and reconnecting with the self.  Even the great Samuel Johnson, known to espouse the merits of London living, wrote that: ‘The use of travelling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are.’

Certainly this group exhibition sets out to stretch rather than regulate our imagination whether it’s the ceramic confection of gloopy ice creams, the collapsed and windswept deck chair to the remembrance of road trips, bank holiday traffic and curious holiday dwellings.  Paintings, floor-based sculpture, video, plaster and ceramic work provide a playful glimpse of what we Brits get up to whilst getting away.

Quay Arts in Newport, Isle of Wight, will host the exhibition for a 2 month run during August and September this year and will provide a sanctuary for those wet and windy summer holiday moments where visitors can experience the outside inside.  In addition there will be paintings and drawings from the IOW art collection that reflect the themes of travel and holidays which will hang alongside the contemporary works creating a truly dynamic visual conversation and showing us how the act of getting away continues to play an important part of our national well-being.

Artists Website Links:

Anna Barlow |  Lydia Blakeley  |  Day Bowman

Jake Clark  |  Marguerite Horner Kitty Stirling

 Judith Tucker  |   Amanda Wallwork  |  Sophie Marritt